In the July 1989 issue of the Salt Lake City
Messenger, we announced the discovery of a large "black
hole" in the first part of the Book of Mormon. We demonstrated that
when the first 116 pages of Joseph Smith's manuscript were stolen, he
was unable to accurately reproduce the material he had
"translated" from the plates of Lehi. Since he feared that his
enemies had not destroyed the missing pages and would bring them forth
and point out contradictions if he tried to duplicate the material, he
was forced to claim that God ordered him to translate the first part of
the Book of Mormon from a different set of plates. Mormons refer to
these plates as the "small plates of Nephi." These "gold
plates" covered the same period as the plates of Lehi, but since
they were written by another author, the story did not have to be
identical to that found in the missing pages. Nevertheless, the evidence
shows that even this solution did not completely solve the dilemma that
confronted Joseph Smith. Smith apparently could not clearly remember
many of the personal names, dates, cities, lands, kings, military
leaders and other matters he had previously written about. Consequently,
what Smith dictated to replace the missing pages of his book had to be
as vague as possible. While these pages would have to cover the same
period as the original pages from the book of Lehi and give some
appearance of being history, they would actually have to be very obscure
when it came to particulars which Joseph Smith could not clearly
remember. Many important things, therefore, which had evaporated from
Joseph Smith's memory would also have to vanish into a rayless and
indefinable "black hole" in the Book of Mormon.

Our theory with regard to this "black
hole" now seems to be well established by the evidence. Not only
have Mormon apologists remained silent in the face of the facts that
have come forth, but new evidence has come to light which tends to
confirm the research which was presented in the July 1989 issue of the Messenger.

One important development relates to a theory held
by some prominent Mormon scholars for a number of years. These scholars
maintain that the first part of the Book of Mormon was actually written
last. They claim that after the 116 pages were stolen, Joseph Smith did not
try to fill in the missing material at the start of the book. Instead,
he picked up where he had left off and continued until he came to the
end of the book. Only after he completed the last part of the Book of
Mormon (over two-thirds of the book), did he face the problem of
restoring the beginning of his work. Therefore, the first six books in
the Book of Mormon — 1 Nephi through Omni — comprising 142 pages,
were written last of all. When we originally did our
work with regard to the "black hole," we did not realize how
well this theory coincided with our ideas. Fortunately, during the
course of our research a Mormon scholar who has lost faith in the divine
authenticity of the Book of Mormon shared some of his research with us.
We checked his work and found that he had irrefutable evidence that the
first part of the book was, in fact, written last. Moreover, this
evidence also conclusively proves that Joseph Smith himself
was the author of the Book of Mormon.

In a new book we have just completed, Covering
Up the Black Hole in the Book of Mormon, we have combined this
important information with our research on the "black hole."
In addition, we have added our computer work on plagiarism — 74
pages of photographic proof that the author of the Book of
Mormon lifted a great deal of material from the New Testament.

The discovery that the first part of the Book of
Mormon was actually written last opened up a plausible explanation as to
why Joseph Smith felt he had to delete the words "Jesus
Christ" from an early portion of the Book of Mormon (1 Nephi
12:18). We had noted this change years ago in our book, 3,913
Changes in the Book of Mormon, but did not understand the
weighty implications of the matter.

One of the most serious problems confronting
believers in the Book of Mormon is the emphasis upon Jesus in the Old
Testament portion of the Book of Mormon. Even the appearance of the name
"Jesus Christ" in the story hundreds of years before his
coming presents a problem. At the time Joseph Smith wrote the Book of
Mormon he must not have realized that the words "Jesus Christ"
were derived from the Greek words Iesous Christos. When Smith
was charged with using a Greek word in the Book of Mormon, he responded
that this was an error: "The error I speak of, is the definition of
the word 'Mormon.' It has been stated that this word was derived
from the Greek word mormo. This is not the case. There
was no Greek or Latin upon the plates from which I...
translated the Book of Mormon." (Times and Seasons,
vol. 4, p. 194) Joseph Smith was aware of the fact that it
would be incorrect to have a name derived from the Greek language in the
Book of Mormon. He, therefore, argued against the idea put forth by his
detractors.

Notwithstanding Joseph Smith's firm denial, there
are names in the Book of Mormon "derived from the Greek." For
example, the name "Timothy" (3 Nephi 19:4) comes from the
Greek language, and the name "Jonas" (found in the same verse)
is the Greek name for Jonah. Moreover, the Greek words "Alpha"
and "Omega" are found in 3 Nephi 9:18. It is evident also
that they have been plagiarized from the New Testament, Revelation 21:6.
(The New Testament, of course, was written in Greek.) It is interesting
to note that Mormon Apostle Bruce R. McConkie freely admitted that these
words are from the Greek language: "ALPHA AND OMEGA.... These
words, the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet,
are used figuratively to teach the timelessness and eternal nature of
our Lord's existence..." (Mormon Doctrine, 1979,
p. 31)

Even the Mormon Church's own Bible Dictionary,
included with the church's printing of the King James Version of the
Bible, acknowledges that "Jesus" is the "Greek
form of the name Joshua or Jeshua" (page 713) and also states that
the "English word Christ is from a Greek
word meaning anointed, and is the equivalent of Messiah,
which is from a Hebrew and Aramaic term meaning Anointed"
(page 609).

If the Book of Mormon had used the words
"Joshua the Messiah" instead of "Jesus Christ," it
would be far more impressive to scholars. It could be argued, of course,
that these words were transliterated into "reformed Egyptian"
characters so they could be engraved on the original gold plates, but
that the translator chose to use the words "Jesus Christ"
instead because they would be more easily understood by the reader. The
problem with the Book of Mormon, however, goes much deeper than just the
name of the Messiah. Mormon scholar S. Kent Brown, who seems to be an
avid apologist for the Book of Mormon, acknowledges that "Nephi and
Jacob use several titles which apparently go beyond
what they could have found in the brass plates... The following titles
and names used by Nephi seem to be more at home in a later era
such as that of the New Testament or of early Christianity: Beloved
Son... Beloved... Son of the living God ... Son of righteousness... Son
of the most high God ... Son of God... Only Begotten of the Father...
Jesus Christ... Christ... true vine... light... The following names
from Jacob fit the same situation: Only Begotten Son... Christ...
Jesus..." (BYU Studies, Winter 1984, p. 35,
n. 40)

(click on each image to enlarge)

A study of the text of the Book of Mormon reveals
that although Joseph Smith may not have known that the words "Jesus
Christ" were obtained from the Greek language, for some reason he
was concerned about introducing them into the first part of the Book of
Mormon between five and six hundred years before the birth of Christ. As
we will show, this fear led Smith into producing some contradictory
material in the Book of Mormon.

S. Kent Brown argued that Lehi did not
know the words Jesus Christ and that they were not revealed
until after Lehi's death:

"Did Lehi not know titles such as Son
of God and Christ? Regarding both the term Christ
and the name Jesus, the answer is a definite no.
According to 2 Nephi 10:3, the title Christ was made
known to Jacob by an angel only after Lehi's death.
And Nephi makes use of this title only after
narrating this experience of Jacob (2 Ne. 11:4). In addition, Nephi
mentions the name Jesus for the first time only near the end
of his own writings (2 Ne. 26:12)... Therefore, we can safely
conclude that Lehi did not know these names." (Ibid.,
pp. 35-36)

Although S. Kent Brown's statement is essentially
correct as it relates to the current edition of the Book of Mormon, when
we turn to the original 1830 edition, a serious problem comes to light
that completely overthrows Brown's thesis. The first edition, in fact,
makes it clear that the name "Jesus Christ" was known not only
before Lehi's death, but it was used by Nephi himself before he
came to the New World:

"And a great and a terrible gulf divideth
them; yea, even the word of the justice of the Eternal God, and Jesus
Christ, which is the Lamb of God..." (Book of Mormon,
1830 edition, page 28)

Since the Book of Mormon later states that the
name was first made known to Jacob years after Lehi's death, in the 2nd
edition Joseph Smith had to change the words "Jesus Christ" to
"the Messiah." In the 1981 edition we read as follows:

"And a great and a terrible gulf divideth
them; yea, even the word of the justice of the Eternal God, and the
Messiah who is the Lamb of God..." (Book of Mormon,
1 Nephi 12:18)

The printer's manuscript of the Book of Mormon was
also altered to reflect this serious change. From this it is obvious
that a deliberate change was made to cover up an anachronistic and
embarrassing portion of the Book of Mormon.

After examining the appearances of the words Jesus
and Christ throughout the Book of Mormon, we saw some strange
patterns which could be explained by the theory that the first part of
the Book of Mormon was written last. It seems, in fact, that Joseph
Smith never intended to introduce the words "Jesus Christ"
into the record of the Nephites until the reign of king Benjamin —
just a little over a century before Christ was born. In the book of
Mosiah, which would be the first book written after the 116 pages were
stolen, king Benjamin gave a moving address to his people in "About
124 B. C." Just before the address, he told his son Mosiah
that he was going to "give this people a name,
that thereby they may be distinguished above all the people which the
Lord God hath brought out of the land of Jerusalem; and this I do
because they have been a diligent people in keeping the commandments of
the Lord. And I give unto them a name that never shall
be blotted out, except it be through transgression." (Mosiah
1:11-12) In his address, king Benjamin seems to be saying that an angel
revealed to him the words "Jesus Christ" and that his people
should take upon themselves the name of Christ:

"...the things which I shall tell you are
made known unto me by an angel from God... he said
unto me: Awake, and hear the words which I shall tell thee, for
behold, I am come to declare unto you the glad tidings of great
joy.... For behold, the time cometh, and is not far distant, that with
power, the Lord Omnipotent... shall come down from heaven... and shall
dwell in a tabernacle of clay... And he shall be called Jesus
Christ the Son of God... and his mother shall be called
Mary." (Mosiah 3:2, 3, 5, 8)

In Mosiah 5:8 and 11, king Benjamin informed his
people, "There is no other name given whereby
salvation cometh; therefore, I would that ye should take upon you the
name of Christ... And I would that ye should remember also,
that this is the name that I said I should give unto you
that never should be blotted out, except it be through
transgression..." Mosiah 6:2 goes on to state that after the
address, "there was not one soul, except it were little children,
but who had entered into the covenant and had taken upon them the name
of Christ."

This address raises a very serious question with
regard to the material appearing in the book of 2nd Nephi which was
supposed to have been written over 400 years earlier. Why would king
Benjamin have to receive a special revelation informing him of the name
of Christ if the plates of Nephi already contained this information?
According to Mormon, "Amaleki had delivered up these plates [the
small plates of Nephi] into the hands of king Benjamin" (Words of
Mormon 1:10). Furthermore, king Benjamin also had the large plates of
Nephi. Benjamin himself told his sons that the "plates of
Nephi" were "true" and instructed them to "remember
to search them diligently" (Mosiah 1:6-7). In the small plates
alone, the name "Jesus" appears 10 times and the term
"Christ" is found 82 times. In 2 Nephi 25:16 and 26,
Nephi plainly wrote that "there is none other name
given under heaven save it be this Jesus Christ, of
which I have spoken, whereby man can be saved.... we talk of Christ,
we rejoice in Christ, we preach Christ,
we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our
prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for
a remission of their sins." In 2 Nephi 31:13 we find this:
"...I know that if ye shall follow the Son... witnessing unto the
Father that ye are willing to take upon you the name of Christ,
by baptism... then shall ye receive the Holy Ghost..."

In light of these references, it seems highly
unreasonable to believe that king Benjamin and his people would have
been completely in the dark concerning the "name of Christ"
before the angel visited Benjamin and revealed this information.

In the books Alma through Mormon the name
"Jesus" is used 147 times and "Christ" appears 176
times. Ether, which is next to the last book in the Book of Mormon, uses
the name "Jesus" 12 times, and the word "Christ"
appears 1-4 times. The last book, Moroni, has "Jesus" 11 times
and "Christ" 70 times. By the time Joseph Smith got around to
replacing the missing portion of the Book of Mormon, he was thoroughly
steeped in the use of the words "Jesus Christ." He had, in
fact, devoted many pages of his work to the visitation of Christ to the
Nephites, and it became very difficult for him to suppress the Messiah's
name as he began replacing the material which was originally in the
missing 116 pages.

One thing seems very clear; Joseph Smith knew that
he should not include the words "Jesus Christ" in his
"translation" of the small plates of Nephi because it would
contradict the pages he had written in the book of Mosiah. (The reader
will remember that in Mosiah he had claimed that an angel revealed these
words to Benjamin.) Consequently, they should not
appear before the reign of king Benjamin.

Once we have this understanding, it becomes
obvious that Joseph Smith was trying very hard to suppress the words
"Jesus Christ" in the first books of the Book of Mormon. An
examination of the 1st book of Nephi shows the caution Joseph Smith was
using with regard to this matter. Prior to the verse where he
accidentally inserted the words "Jesus Christ" (1 Nephi
12:18), he attempted to use every other word he could think of to avoid
using the name of Jesus. He used the word God 36 times; the
words the Lord 99 times; the words God of Israel 2
times; Messiah 9 times; Savior once; Redeemer
4 times; the words the Lamb or the Lamb of God 15
times; the words Son of God 5 times and the Son 3
times. The words "Jesus" or "Christ" never appear in
any of the first 22 printed pages of the Book of Mormon.

The cover-up was working very well until Joseph
Smith arrived at chapter 12, verse 18. At that point, however, he seems
to have made a slip of the tongue and dictated the words "Jesus
Christ." He apparently did not even realize he had made an error
and did not catch this serious mistake when he printed the first edition
in 1830. Smith probably did not realize that he had made this Freudian
slip until he reread the text of the Book of Mormon for the 1837
edition. As we have shown, at that time he removed the words "Jesus
Christ" and the words "the Messiah" took their place in
the editions which followed.

In any case, after Joseph Smith made his revealing
blunder in 1 Nephi 12:18, he was able to dictate about 55
pages of text before he made a similar mistake. He filled these
pages with all sorts of synonyms in his attempt to avoid mentioning the
words "Jesus Christ." He used "the Lord" 204 times
(actually more if we add on some pages of Isaiah quoted in this portion
of the Book of Mormon). The word "God" is used 170 times: the
words "the Lamb" or "Lamb of God" appear 59 times;
"Messiah" is used 10 times; "Redeemer" is found 10
times and "Savior" appears twice, In this portion of the Book
of Mormon, Joseph Smith used some new synonyms. In 2 Nephi 9:5, for
instance, we read that "it behooveth the great Creator
that he suffereth himself to become subject unto man in the
flesh..." Verse 6 also uses these same words. In the second
chapter of the same book (verses 27 and 28), the Messiah is referred to
twice as "the great Mediator." From the book
of Isaiah in the Bible, Joseph Smith derived the words "the Holy
One of Israel." This is used in 1 Nephi 22:21 as a substitute
for "Jesus Christ": "And now I, Nephi, declare unto you,
that this prophet of whom Moses spake was the Holy One of Israel..."
These same words are used in 26 other places in the section of the text
we are discussing. When we add all of these references to deity in this
section of the Book of Mormon, we obtain a total of 486.
In this same portion, the computer failed to find a single
mention of either "Jesus" or "Christ."

Finally, after dictating 55 straight pages without
letting the name of the Messiah escape from his mouth, Joseph Smith
stumbled again. In 2 Nephi 10:3, the word "Christ"
slipped out. This time, however, Smith was immediately aware of his
mistake. Although this slip of the tongue was not as bad as the first
mistake (1 Nephi 12:18, where he used both "Jesus" and
"Christ"), this time Smith seems to have realized that his
scribe had heard him use the word "Christ" and that "the
cat was out of the bag." He apparently did not want to admit that
he had made a mistake. It appears, therefore, that he immediately
attempted to correct the problem by claiming that Jacob had the word
"Christ" revealed to him by an angel. The reader will notice
how quickly Joseph Smith reacted in his attempt to smooth things over.

"And now I, Jacob, speak unto you again...
our children shall be restored, that they may come to that which will
give them the true knowledge of their Redeemer. Wherefore, as I said
unto you, it must needs be expedient that Christ —
for in the last night the angel spake unto me that this should
be his name — should come among the Jews..."
(2 Nephi 10:1-3)

It is interesting to note that the order of things
is different than when king Benjamin had the name of the Messiah
revealed to him. In that account, Benjamin first tells his people that
an "angel of God" appeared to him and gave him an important
message. He then says that the angel told him the Savior would "be
called Jesus Christ, the Son of God..." (Mosiah 3:2 and 8) In
Jacob's account, however, he mentions the fact that an angel had given
him the name "Christ" only after he had let the name
slip out of his mouth. When all of the facts are considered, it is
difficult to resist the idea that the angel's message was an
afterthought.

After Jacob first mentioned "Christ" in
2 Nephi 10:3, it did not take him long to use it again. Within two
and a half pages the word "Christ" appears 5 more times. It
should be noted, however, that the word "Jesus" does not
appear at all in Jacob's address. Nephi first uses this word in
2 Nephi 25:19: "...the Messiah cometh... and according to the
words of the prophets, and also the word of the angel of God, his name
shall be Jesus Christ the Son of God." It would
appear that since Joseph Smith had already used the word
"Christ," he felt it would be pointless to continue to
suppress the name "Jesus." Like Jacob, Nephi claimed "the
angel of God" revealed the Savior's name. In this verse Nephi also
makes a peculiar statement concerning the matter; he comments that the
name was found in "the words of the prophets." If this was the
case, why were Nephi, Jacob and king Benjamin all ignorant of this
important information until angels revealed it? Furthermore, why would
an angel have to give a revelation concerning the matter if it was
already found in "the words of the prophets."

Joseph Smith not only had a very serious problem
with regard to the name "Jesus Christ" in the Book of Mormon,
but as Wesley P. Walters observed, he also "lost track of his
time-frame" in some portions of the book. In his Master's thesis,
"The
Use of the Old Testament in the Book of Mormon," page 79,
Walters notes that there are "several passages in which Joseph had
difficulty from time to time trying to have his Book of Mormon
characters write about events as still in the future when from Joseph's
vantage point they were already in the past." Pastor Walters gives
some examples on pages 79-80 of his thesis, and H. Michael Marquardt has
dealt with this subject in The
Use of the Bible In the Book of Mormon, page 5.

A good example of the problem Joseph Smith had is
found in the book of 2 Nephi, chapter 31, dated "Between 559
and 545 B.C.":

"And now, I would ask of you... wherein the
Lamb of God did fulfill all righteousness in being
baptized by water? Know ye not that he was holy?...
Wherefore after he was baptized with water the Holy
Ghost descended upon him... it showeth unto the children of men the
straitness of the path... he having set the example
before them." (2 Nephi 31: 6-9)

In one place in Mosiah, dated "About 148
B.C.," Smith seems to have realized he was in the past tense and
tried to correct the situation: "And now if Christ had not
come into the world, speaking of things to come as
though they had already come, there could have been no
redemption." (Mosiah 16:6)

After we completed our research with regard to the
black hole in the small plates of Nephi we became aware of the fact that
the entire Book of Mormon is also lacking a significant number of
important things that should be there if the book were really a history
of ancient Jewish people in the New World. In our new book, Covering
Up the Black Hole in the Book of Mormon, we explored a number
of important things that are either entirely missing or seldom mentioned
in the Book of Mormon.

One thing that is strangely lacking in the Book of
Mormon is a system of measurements. It appears, in fact, that a black
hole extends throughout the entire book. It is hard to understand why
Joseph Smith did not bother to give the ancient Nephites, Lamanites and
Jaredites some system of measurements. It is possible that he felt that
he might in some way contradict Hebrew measurements, or he may have just
been too lazy or preoccupied to design or follow any kind of a system.
In Alma 11:4, this statement appears concerning measurement:
"...they [the Nephites] did not reckon after the manner of the
Jews... but they altered their reckoning and their measure, according to
the minds and the circumstances of the people, in every generation,
until the reign of the judges..."

In any case, our reading of the text of the Book
of Mormon produced no examples of the measurement of anything. In Alma
11:7 and 11, we read that "A senum of silver was equal to a senine
of gold, and either for a measure of barley, and also for a measure of
every kind of grain.... A shiblon is half of a senum; therefore, a
shiblon for half a measure of barley." We are left completely in
the dark, however, as to how much grain is contained in a
"measure." We searched with the Mormon Church's computer
program to see if we could find something our reading of the text did
not disclose. The words which we searched for were as follows: measure,
measured, measurement, measures, measuring, length, breadth, width,
height, heights, stature, size, distance and depth. These
words, of course, produced a great many examples of measurement in the
Bible, but the Book of Mormon produced nothing of any value. The closest
thing we could find to measurement appeared in Alma 50:2. This verse
spoke of "works of timbers built up to the height of a man..."
The only other thing we found was in Ether 2:17, where a description of
the barges used to bring the Jaredites to the New World is given:
"...the length thereof was the length of a tree..."
Since trees vary a great deal in their length, this does not give us too
much to go on; some trees are only 20 or 30 feet high, whereas some of
the giant sequoias in California grow to over 300 feet high. The
description given of Jared's barges certainly is not as precise as that
given concerning the ark in the Bible: "...The length of the ark
shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the
height of it thirty cubits." (Genesis 6:15) According to the
computer, the Bible uses the words cubit and cubits
258 times, whereas the word cubit is only found once in the
Book of Mormon. In 3 Nephi 13:27, we read: "Which of you by
taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?" It is
interesting to note, however, that even this example was plagiarized
from the Bible, Matthew 6:27.

As far as distance is concerned, the New Testament
refers to "mile" and "furlongs." The Nephites, on
the other hand, seem to have never developed any accurate way to measure
distance. Alma 22:32 says that "it was only the distance of
a day and a half's journey for a Nephite... from the east to
the west sea..." It is true that the Book of Mormon does use the
word "mile" once in 3 Nephi 12:41, but it is obvious that
it is plagiarized from Matthew 5:41: "And whosoever shall compel
thee to go a mile, go with him twain."

The Bible has a great deal to say about the weight
of various objects. The ancient Hebrews used a balance or scales to
weigh their precious metals and other items.

For instance, in Numbers 7:13 we read: "And
his offering was one silver charger, the weight thereof was an hundred
and thirty shekels, one silver bowl of seventy shekels, after the shekel
of the sanctuary..." The computer shows that the Bible mentions
"shekel" or "shekels" 139 times, whereas the Book of
Mormon never uses these words. "Gerahs" are mentioned in the
Old Testament, and the words "pound" and "pounds"
are found in both the Old and New Testaments. These words, however, are
not found in the Book of Mormon. The words "talent" and
"talents" (a talent of silver was equal to 3,000 shekels)
appear 66 times in the two testaments of the Bible. The Book of Mormon,
however, only has one place where the word talent is found:
"...take away their talent... and
give unto them who shall have more abundantly."
(Ether 12:35) This seems to have been plagiarized from Matthew 25:28-29:
"Take therefore the talent from
him, and give it unto him which hath
ten talents. For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall
have abundance..."

We searched for the following words in both the
Bible and the Book of Mormon: weigh, weighed, weigheth, weighing,
weight, weightier, weights, weighty, scales, balance and balances.
The search in the Bible brought forth a great deal of information. The
Book of Mormon, however, yielded six references, but none of these had
anything to do with the weight or weighing of any object. For instance,
Lehi exclaimed: "My heart hath been weighed down
with sorrow..." (2 Nephi 1:17), and Nephi wrote: "And
then they shall rejoice... and their scales of darkness
shall begin to fall from their eyes..." (2 Nephi 30:6) It is
also interesting to note that in Joseph Smith's other writings in the Doctrine
and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price which includes
the books of Abraham and Moses we do not find any of the words mentioned
above in any way that relates to weighing or the weight of any object.
It seems obvious, then, that Joseph Smith had very little interest in
any system of weights and this is reflected in his writings.

In an attempt to ascertain if anything was ever
actually measured in the Book of Mormon, we searched for the following
words: measure, measured, measurement, measures and measuring.
While the Bible produced numerous references regarding measurement,
other than the two indefinite references in the 11th chapter of Alma
(mentioned above), we could find no evidence that people in the Book of
Mormon actually measured anything.

While the Book of Mormon gives an abundance of
details concerning military matters and some aspects of religion, it is
very deficient in a number of important areas. In many respects it is
virtually colorless in its description of events and people. Indeed, the
word "colorless" could be applied almost in a literal sense to
the Book of Mormon. We, in fact, did a study concerning eleven
colors mentioned in the Bible and found the following: the
Bible mentions these colors, or words derived from these colors
(e. g., red, reddish; green, greenness, etc.), 382 times, whereas
the Book of Mormon yielded only 56 instances where these words were
used. Moreover, if we eliminate the words "black" and
"white" from this total, there are only 18 places where we
find any other colors. Red appeared the most frequently. It comprises 15
of the 18 instances mentioned. When we take a closer look at red,
however, we find another amazing fact: of the 15 times it appears only 2
of these instances relate to anything in the New World. These refer to
the fact that the Amlicites "marked themselves with red in their
foreheads" (see Alma 3:4, 13). The other 13 places where this word
is found relate to the sea which the Israelites passed through on their
flight from the Egyptians — i. e., the Red Sea (see
Exodus 10:19).

The other two colors which appear in the Book of
Mormon are scarlet — actually "scarlets" — and "grey."
The word scarlets is found twice in 1 Nephi 13:7-8, and
was apparently plagiarized from Revelations 18:12. The remaining color, grey,
is found just once (1 Nephi 18:18) and seems to have been lifted
from the Bible (see Genesis 42:38).

Of more importance, however, are the colors which
are completely missing from the Book of Mormon: BLUE,
BROWN, CRIMSON, GREEN, PURPLE and YELLOW. That
all these colors would be absent from the book is astounding. It is also
interesting to note that five of these colors — blue, brown, crimson,
purple and yellow — are also missing in Joseph Smith's writings in the
Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price.
The word "green" does appear one time in the Doctrine and
Covenants and also once in the Pearl of Great Price, but
both occurrences seem to have been taken from the Bible.

Our computer search of the Bible for the words colour,
coloured and colors — note the British spelling in the
King James Version — revealed that they were used 27 times. The same
search in the Book of Mormon yielded only the word "colors"
once (see 3 Nephi 22:11). This word, however, has been directly
taken from a verse in the Bible (see Isaiah 54:11). The very limited use
of colors throughout the Book of Mormon seems to show that it was
written by one author who apparently did not pay much
attention to colors. Furthermore, the fact that the Doctrine and
Covenants and Pearl of Great Price completely omit five of
the same colors as the Book of Mormon points to the conclusion that they
were all the product of the same mind.

The ancient Israelites were a people who were very
interested in music. This interest should certainly be reflected in the
Book of Mormon. An examination of the book, however, shows that it was
written by a person who had very little interest in music. We searched
for the words sang, sing, singed, singer, singers, singeth, singing,
sings, song and songs and found that they appeared 268
times in the Bible. These same words are only found 36 times in the Book
of Mormon, and further research shows that most of these
were derived through plagiarism from the Bible. We have identified 19
places where they were directly copied from the Bible, and of the
remaining 17, there are 8 cases where they only refer to singing in
heaven or singing the song of "redeeming love" — i. e.,
becoming converted to Christ. We also searched for the words hymn
and hymns. While we found 4 cases in the Bible, the Book of
Mormon did not yield any examples of these words. We also searched for
the words music, musical, musician, musicians and musick.
(In this particular search we included headings found in the Psalms
because they are found in the Hebrew text.) These words appeared 73
times in the Bible, but, again, the Book of Mormon yielded no examples
of these words being used. It is also interesting to note that Joseph
Smith did not use any of these words in the Pearl of Great Price
or his revelations printed in the Doctrine and Covenants. The
word "music" appears once in the Doctrine and Covenants
(Section 136:28), but it is in a revelation given to Brigham Young.

When it comes to musical instruments, the Book of
Mormon is sadly deficient. We searched for the words instrument
and instruments and found 24 places in the Bible where they are
used with regard to musical instruments. Although the Book of Mormon
uses these words, we did not find a single case where they refer to a
musical instrument. We searched for the names of specific musical
instruments the Israelites used. In the first search we looked for the
following instruments: organ, organs, psalteries, psaltery, sackbut,
tabret, tabrets, timbrel, timbrels, trump, trumpet, trumpeters,
trumpets, trumps and viol. While these words appeared 174
times in the Bible, they are used only 7 times in the Book of Mormon.
The word trump appears 3 times, but in every case it is
referring to the trump of God. While the word trumpet is found
twice, one of these examples (3 Nephi 13:2) has been plagiarized
from Matthew 6:2. The only example of any of these musical instruments
actually being used is when a Jaredite by the name of Comnor "did
sound a trumpet unto the armies of Shiz to invite them forth to
battle." (Ether 14:28) It is really surprising that the author of
the Book of Mormon, who obviously had a real interest in warfare, never
had the Nephites or the Lamanites sound a trumpet.

We also searched for the following musical
instruments or words related to them: comet, cornets, cymbal,
cymbals, dulcimer, flute, harp, harped, harpers, harping, harps, pipe,
piped, pipers and pipes. The result was that we found
these words used 102 times in the Bible. Only two of these words were
found in the Book of Mormon, harp and pipe. They both
appear in one verse found in 2 Nephi 15:12. An examination of this
verse, however, shows that it was plagiarized from Isaiah 5:12 in the
Bible. It is obvious, therefore, that the author of the Book of Mormon
mentioned none of these musical instruments in his own writing. The same
applies to Joseph Smith's revelations in the Doctrine and Covenants.
The Pearl of Great Price does use the word harp in one
place (Moses 5:45), but it is obvious that even this is taken from
Genesis 4:21.

An extremely important question concerning the
Book of Mormon is whether it was actually written by Jewish writers who
understood the laws and customs of ancient Israel or by someone who was
raised in the Christian faith as a Protestant during the early part of
the 19th century. The authenticity of the Book of Mormon stands or falls
on this question.

The Book of Mormon presents what most Christians
feel is a very unusual picture of religious life between 600 B.C. and
the coming of Christ. It claims that the ancient Nephites actually
worshipped Jesus Christ and established Christian churches during this
long period before Christ died and the New Testament was written. Bible
scholars find it very hard to accept this claim, and they are even more
puzzled when they learn that the Book of Mormon claims that the ancient
Nephites also kept the law of Moses at the same time. Between "559
and 545 B.C." Nephi was supposed to have written the following:
"And, notwithstanding we believe in Christ, we keep the law
of Moses, and look forward with steadfastness unto Christ,
until the law shall be fulfilled.... the right way is to believe in
Christ... And, inasmuch as it shall be expedient, ye must keep
the performances and ordinances of God until the Law shall be fulfilled
which was given to Moses." (2 Nephi 25:21, 29-30) In his
Master's thesis, Wesley P. Walters takes issue with this type of
worship:

"The transplantation of New Testament
material into the Old disrupts the dispensations that God has
established in the unfolding of redemption, and confuses the Old and
New Covenants and their respective ordinances. The Book of Mormon is
careful to point out that the American Hebrew colony 'kept the law of
Moses'... Yet Christian baptism was said to be taught among the
Nephites five hundred years before Christ.... Furthermore by 147 B.C.
a Christian Church is depicted as flourishing, of which people become
members through baptism.... to introduce the New Testament practice of
baptism in the name of Christ into the Old Testament period is to
confuse the Old and New Covenants and the ordinances connected with
each. The Book of Hebrews is very specific that while the Old
Testament was in force, the New clearly was not. When the New Covenant
had been established, the Old Covenant was abolished (Heb. 8:13,
10: 1-9). To introduce the features of the New Covenant into the
time period when the Old Covenant was in force is to confuse the two
covenants to the extent of rendering them both meaningless. Yet Mormon
teaching has followed this pattern first set out in the Book of
Mormon.... Dr. James D. Bales has well expressed the Book of Mormon's
variance with the biblical teachings concerning the Old and New
Covenants: 'The two [covenants] could not exist together because he
took away the first that he might establish the second. Furthermore,
it is evident that the second could not be in force before the first
had been taken away. This is evident because the purpose of the taking
away of the first was to establish the second. It had to be taken away
so the second could be established.' The Book of Mormon, by injecting
the New Testament material into the Old Testament period, completely
disrupts the biblical pattern so carefully set forth in the Old
Testament itself and so faithfully guarded by the New." ("The
Use of the Old Testament in the Book of Mormon," pages
15-17)

Joseph Smith's idea of having the Nephites
practicing Christianity yet living the law of Moses for hundreds of
years seems to be equivalent to a man trying to ride two horses at the
same time over rough terrain. Eventually the horses part and the man
comes crashing to the ground.

The fact that full-blown Christianity appears far
too early in the Book of Mormon and continues to dominate throughout the
entire book leads to the conclusion that it was written by someone who
at least professed to be a Christian. That person's familiarity with the
New Testament is evident from the 1st book of Nephi until the concluding
book of Moroni.

While the Book of Mormon shows a fair knowledge of
biblical Christianity and a real interest in the religious topics that
were being debated during Joseph Smith's lifetime, it seems to be almost
totally deficient when it comes to the issues which were of great
importance to the Jews prior to the time of Christ. The church's own
computer program has helped us to pinpoint some of the areas where the
Book of Mormon is sadly lacking with regard to Jewish customs and
religion.

It is a well-known fact that one of the most
important items in Judaism is the festival of the passover. While the
Jewish people were held in slavery in Egypt, Moses told the elders to
"take you a lamb according to your families, and kill the passover.
And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in
the basin, strike the lintel and the two side posts with the blood that
is in the basin... For the Lord will pass through to smite the
Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two
side posts, the Lord will pass over the door, and will not suffer the
destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you." (Exodus 12:21
23) The Egyptians did not do this, and consequently lost all their
"firstborn." This judgment upon the Egyptians, of course,
convinced Pharaoh that he should let God's people leave the land. In
Exodus 12:14, the Lord told the Jewish people that "this day shall
be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the Lord
throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance
for ever."

The importance of the passover to the Jewish
people cannot be overstated. Since the Nephites were supposed to have
been Israelites who possessed "the five books of Moses"
(1 Nephi 5:11), they should have celebrated the passover about six
hundred times after they came to America. We would expect, therefore, to
find a significant number of references to that festival in the Book of
Mormon. A computer search for the words passover and passovers
revealed that these words were used 77 times in the
Bible. In the Book of Mormon, however, these words are never
used at all. It is absolutely astounding that a book purported
to have been written by ancient Jewish people would never refer to the
passover.

At the time of the passover, the Israelites were
supposed to "observe the feast of unleavened bread." (Exodus
12:17) In verse 15, the Lord tells the people that "Seven days
shall ye eat unleavened bread; even the first day ye shall put away
leaven out of your houses: for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the
first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from
Israel." The Bible yielded 43 places where unleavened bread
was mentioned, but the Book of Mormon was completely silent about the
matter. We also searched for the following words: leaven, leavened,
leaveneth and unleavened. While the Book of Mormon never
used any of these words, the Bible had 100 places where these words
appeared.

Besides the passover with the accompanying feast
of unleavened bread, the Jewish men were required to attend two other
feasts or festivals — i. e., the feast of weeks (also known as
the feast of harvest) and the feast of tabernacles (or feast of
ingathering). When we searched in the Bible for the two words feast
of, we found 41 places where they refer to Jewish feasts. We found
the feast of passover, the feast of unleavened bread,
the feast of harvest, the feast of weeks, the feast
of tabernacles, the feast of the ingathering, the feast
of the seventh month, the feast of dedication, the feast
of the Lord and the feast of the Jews. Some of these
names, of course, are just different names for the same feasts. In the
New Testament we find the word Pentecost used three times. This
is the Old Testament feast of weeks. We have, therefore, 44
cases in which Jewish feasts or festivals are mentioned in the Bible,
and we feel that a search for just the word feast would bring
forth more examples. In the Book of Mormon, however, there is not
even one case where a Jewish feast or festival was celebrated
in the New World!

The Book of Mormon even seems to be deficient with
regard to the "sabbath day." A search for the words sabbath
and sabbaths revealed that they were used 171 times in the
Bible, but appeared just 5 times in the Book of Mormon. It is also
interesting to note that 3 of the 5 cases (Mosiah 13:16, 18, 19) are
derived directly from the Bible, Exodus 20:8, 10, 11. It seems almost
incredible that the Book of Mormon, which was supposed to have been
written by Jewish people, would almost completely disregard the day
which was held so sacred by the ancient Israelites.

Even before the Israelites received the law of
Moses, they were practicing circumcision. It was a very important part
of the Jewish religion. Genesis 17:14 makes it clear that "the
uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised,
that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken the
covenant." The Book of Mormon should have many references to this
practice if it is really a history of Jewish people. We searched for the
words circumcise, circumcised, circumcising, circumcision,
uncircumcised, uncircumcision, foreskin and foreskins and
learned that the Bible uses these words 160 times. These same words only
appeared 5 times in the Book of Mormon. Two of the places where
they are found (2 Nephi 8:24 and 3 Nephi 20:36) are taken directly from the
Bible, Isaiah 52:1. Two other references (2 Nephi 9:33 and Helaman
9:21) are only referring to the "uncircumcised of heart." The
only remaining reference (Moroni 8:8) is found in one of the very last
chapters in the book. It says that after the coming of Christ, he told
the Nephites that "the law of circumcision is done away in
me." This is a very strange statement because there seems to be no
evidence in the Book of Mormon that it was ever practiced.

The Book of Mormon claims that "I, Nephi, did
build a temple; and I did construct it after the manner of the temple of
Solomon save it were not built of so many precious things..."
(2 Nephi 5:16) After this verse, however, Nephi never mentions the
temple again. His brother Jacob did use this temple to preach a sermon,
but after that we find no mention of any temple for hundreds of years.
Mormon scholar John L. Sorenson observed: "Perhaps during the
centuries of warfare... the original temple fell into disuse... At least
we hear nothing about the temple between Jacob's day
and the time when the Zeniffites reoccupied the land, over 400 years
later..." (An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon,
p. 145)

The ancient Israelites had two altars in their
temple — the brasen altar for burnt offerings and the golden altar for
burning incense. Altars played a very important role in the religious
ceremonies of both the Jews and the people around them who worshipped
other gods. Consequently, when we searched for the words altar and
altars in the Bible, we found that they were mentioned 433 times. The
Book of Mormon, however, only used these words 4 times. It is also
interesting to note that two of these cases (Alma 15:17; 17:4) seem to
have nothing to do with altars used in temples to offer sacrifices or
burn incense. The word altar in these cases refers to the type
of altar used in Christian churches where people pray and confess their
sins. This is obvious from Alma 15:17: "...the people... began to
assemble themselves together at their sanctuaries to worship God before
the altar..." Of the two remaining verses which contain the word altar,
one of them (2 Nephi 16:6) was obviously copied from the Bible,
Isaiah 6:6. The last verse, 1 Nephi 2:7, does mention the fact that
Lehi "built an altar of stones, and made an offering to the
Lord..." This is the only verse where a Jewish type of altar is
mentioned in the entire Book of Mormon. The reader will notice, however,
that this "altar" was built when Lehi was traveling in the
"wilderness in the borders which are nearer the Red Sea"
(verse 5). It has nothing to do with any altar in the New World.
Furthermore, it was only a temporary pile of stones, not an altar in a
temple. It is plain, therefore, that the Book of Mormon never refers to
either a brasen altar to offer sacrifices in the temple or a golden
altar for burning incense.

The author of the Book of Mormon seems to have
been almost completely in the dark with regard to the importance of
sacrifices and offerings in the ancient Jewish religion. We used the
computer to search for the following words sacrifice, sacrificed,
sacrificedst, sacrifices, sacrificeth, sacrificial and sacrificing.
The result was that the Bible yielded 298 cases where these words were
used, but the Book of Mormon produced only 20. Of these 20, however, 9
referred to Christ sacrificing his life, 3 were related to human
sacrifice, 2 were concerning men sacrificing their own lives, 1 was
concerning the sacrifice of "a broken heart and a contrite
spirit" and 2 were specific instructions by Christ to the Nephites
to cease making "sacrifices and your burnt offerings" after
the law was fulfilled. There were, therefore, only 3
references that could relate to someone actually making a sacrifice
according to the Jewish law.

We searched for the words offering and offerings
and discovered that while they were used 989 times in the Bible, they
only appeared 13 times in the Book of Mormon. Of the 13, only 4 could be
linked in any way to the type of sacrifices the Jewish priests offered
in their temple, 4 were directly copied from the Bible, 2 came from
Christ's words to end sacrifices and burnt offerings. The last 3 were
concerning the story of Isaac in the Bible, the offering of Christ and
the teaching that people should offer their "whole souls" to
God. A search for the words 'burnt offerings" yields only 5 places
in the Book of Mormon where these words appear together. All of these
were previously found in our search for the words offering and offerings,
and as we stated before, 2 of the 5 relate to "burnt
offerings" being forbidden after the appearance of
Christ to the Nephites. The Bible, on the other hand, has 86 places. The
Book of Mormon never uses the words "burnt offering"
(singular), but they do appear 184 times in the Bible.

The only verse in the Book of Mormon that relates
to the inhabitants of the New World making burnt offerings is Mosiah
2:3: "And they also took of the firstlings of
their flocks, that they might offer sacrifice and burnt
offerings according to the law of Moses." Instead of
helping the case for the authenticity of the Book of Mormon, this verse
actually shows that the author of the Book of Mormon really did not
understand the law of Moses. M. T. Lamb points out:

"According to the law of Moses the firstlings
of their flocks were never offered as burnt
offerings or sacrifices. All firstlings
belonged to the Lord, de jure, and could not be counted
as a man's personal property — whereas, all burnt offerings, or
sacrifices for sin of every kind, must be selected from the man's own
personal property, or be purchased with his own money for that
purpose, while all firstlings of the flock, as the
Lord's property, came into the hands of the high priest, and by him
could be offered up as a peace offering, not as a burnt
offering or a sin offering, himself and family eating
the flesh. (See Ex. 13:2, 12 and 22:29, 30; Numb. 3:13; 2d Sam. 24:24;
Numb. 18:15-18 and other places.)

"This one little blunder, then, proves
beyond the chance of question that the Book of Mormon could not have
been inspired by the Holy Spirit or by an angel of the Lord. This
passage is precisely such a passage as Joseph Smith or any other
ignorant man like him might have written; it could not have been found
in the book if God, or any angel of the Lord, had had to do with its
preparation." (The
Golden Bible, pages 109-110)

That the author of the Book of Mormon would make
the serious mistake described above with regard to "burnt
offerings" shows that he was unfamiliar with the biblical material
on the subject. Moreover, it appears that he was not even aware of the
other kinds of Jewish offerings commanded in the Bible. In the King
James Version of the Old Testament we find the following: trespass
offerings, meat offerings, drink offerings, wave offerings and peace
offerings (see Exodus, chapter 29; Leviticus, chapters 2-5;
Numbers, chapter 29; Chronicles, chapter 29). The computer showed that
these offerings were mentioned 519 times in the Bible. The Book of
Mormon, on the other hand, does not have a single place where
any of these important offerings are mentioned!

The Book of Mormon not only fails the test with
regard to Jewish sacrifices, but it is also deficient when it comes to
the ancient laws concerning ceremonial uncleanness. Under the Mosaic law
there were certain things people did that would make them unclean."
For instance, in Numbers 19:11-13, we read: "He that toucheth the
dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days. He shall purify
himself with it on the third day, and on the seventh day he shall be
clean... Whosoever toucheth the dead body of any man that is dead, and
purifieth not himself, defileth the tabernacle of the Lord; and that
soul shall be cut off from Israel: because the water of separation was
not sprinkled upon him..." That these laws concerning ceremonial
uncleanness were still in effect when Jesus was born is clear from Luke
2:21-23: "And when eight days were accomplished for the
circumcising of the child, his name was called JESUS... And when the
days of her [Mary's] purification according to the law of Moses were
accomplished, they brought him to Jerusalem, to present him to the
Lord... And to offer a sacrifice according to that which is said in the
law of the Lord, A pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons."

The Old Testament also gave the Jewish people
strict laws concerning which type of food was clean or unclean. These
instructions are still carefully observed by Jewish people today who
only eat "kosher" food — i. e., food that is permitted
by their dietary laws.

The author of the Book of Mormon seems to have
been oblivious to these laws. While the Bible uses the words clean
and unclean 327 times, they only appear in the Book of Mormon
25 times. Eleven of these, however, seem to relate to whether a person
is going to heaven or to hell. For instance, in 1 Nephi 15:34, we
read that "there cannot any unclean thing enter into the kingdom of
God..." In 6 places the material has been taken directly from the
Bible, 3 relate to unclean spirits and the last 5 are concerning other
matters that have no relationship to the ceremonial laws concerning
uncleanness in the Bible.

In our search to find if the Book of Mormon
mentioned anything about these ancient laws, we searched for the
following words: purification, purifications, purified, purifier,
purifieth, purify and purifying. The Bible yielded 49
places where these words occurred. While the Book of Mormon had 10
places, 8 related to Christ's purifying work in a person's life and the
other 2 were derived through plagiarism from the Bible.

Although the Book of Mormon has a great deal of
material regarding Jesus Christ and Christianity, it has hardly anything
that would relate to the early Jewish religion and customs. We have
noted, for instance, that the Nephites never celebrated the passover or
any of the other festivals or feasts that were so important to the
ancient Israelites. Very little appears about the sabbath day and, as we
show in our new book, nothing concerning sabbatical years or jubilee.
There seems to be no evidence that circumcision was actually practiced.
The Book of Mormon also seems to be sadly deficient with regard to
material regarding both tithing and the temple. The author of the Book
of Mormon seems to know nothing at all about the laws concerning unclean
foods and practices, and sacrifices are almost completely absent. In
fact, the only time that the author of the Book of Mormon speaks of
"burnt offerings" he makes a serious mistake.

If Joseph Smith had said that the Nephites had
totally changed their beliefs before they came to the New World, these
matters would be easier to understand. Instead, however, the Book of
Mormon itself boasts that "the people did observe to keep the
commandments of the Lord; and they were strict in
observing the ordinances of God, according to the law of Moses,
for they were taught to keep the law of Moses until it
should be fulfilled." (Alma 30: 3)

All of this evidence leads to the inescapable
conclusion that the Book of Mormon was written by someone raised as a
Protestant who had very scanty knowledge with regard to Jewish history,
religion and customs.

In the July 1989 issue of the Messenger we noted
that the evidence we now have against the authenticity of the Book of
Mormon is at least a thousand times as strong as the textual evidence we
had against the Hofmann documents. Much material relating to plagiarism
in the Book of Mormon was obtained prior to the time that we began
working with the Mormon Church's computer program, but since that time
new and important evidence has come to light.

The idea that the author of the Book of Mormon
plagiarized from the New Testament is not new. In his book, Roughing
It, page 110, Mark Twain made this observation concerning the Book
of Mormon: "The book seems to be merely a prosy detail of imaginary
history, with the Old Testament for a model; followed by a tedious
plagiarism of the New Testament. The author labored to give his words
and phrases the quaint, old-fashioned sound and structure of our King
James's translation of the Scriptures; and the result is a mongrel —
half modern glibness, and half ancient simplicity and gravity."

It is very clear from the contents of the Book of
Mormon that while the author was not a trained Bible scholar, he was
rather familiar with the contents of the King James Version of the
Bible. Although Mormon apologists are reluctant to face the facts, the
evidence shows that Joseph Smith had the ability and the biblical
knowledge required to write the Book of Mormon. According to Smith's
earliest account of his life, written in 1832, he claimed he began
studying the Bible when he was only about 12 years old: "At about the
age of twelve years my mind become seriously imprest (page 1)
with regard to the all importent concerns for the wellfare of my
immortal Soul which led me to searching the scriptures...
from the age of twelve years to fifteen I pondered many things in my
heart concerning the sittuation of the world of mankind... My mind
become excedingly distressed for I become convicted of my sins and by
searching the scriptures I found that... /mankind/ did not come unto the
Lord but that they had apostatised from the true and living faith."
(An
American Prophet's Record: The Diaries and Journals of Joseph Smith,
pages 4-5) Since this document was written in Joseph Smith's own hand,
it shows that he had all the skill necessary to write a book like the
Book of Mormon and also that he had been studying the Bible since he was
a child.

Joseph Smith's mother later wrote that her son
told her he could take his "Bible and go into the woods, and learn
more in two hours, than you can learn at meeting in two years, if you
should go all the time." (Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith
the Prophet, p. 90) If Joseph Smith began studying the Bible
when he was about 12 years old, as his own statement indicates, he would
have had about 10 or 11 years experience with the Bible prior to writing
the Book of Mormon.

In his Master's thesis, Wesley P. Walters made
these observations about the text of the Book of Mormon:

"When one begins to read the Book of
Mormon, if he is well-acquainted with the Bible, he will at once be
impressed with the large scale use of biblical materials in the book.
Not only is there an unskilled mimicking of the style of the King
James Version, but there is an artificial clarity added to that
portion of the Book of Mormon that claims to date from the Old
Testament period. This contrived clarity is the result of writing back
into that Old Testament period New Testament words, phrases and
quotations, as well as the introduction of New Testament concepts and
teachings into that time-frame....

"The usual Mormon defense is that such
knowledge was supernaturally made known to the people in America, just
as God in a vision showed Ezekiel that Jerusalem was about to fall and
the temple to be destroyed, or Peter given a vision of Cornelius
before he met him in person. Such an explanation might be more readily
accepted if the Book of Mormon had presented its material in the
format of a vision. Instead it introduces its material in much the
same way that a nineteenth century frontier preacher introduced
biblical quotations into his sermons. The frequency with which the
Book of Mormon introduces this chronologically misplaced material into
its text would require that God supernaturally provided this American
colony with virtually the entire New Testament text, as well as those
portions of the Old Testament which postdated their departure for
America.... passages from the New Testament... are sprinkled
generously into the speeches and sermons of Book of Mormon characters
in the same manner as one might find them in the sermons of a
Methodist or Baptist preacher of Joseph Smith's day. This type of
usage implies an acquaintance with the New Testament books themselves.
Only after knowing the entire work can one select from it appropriate
words and phrases to employ in this sermonic manner. It is naive to
suggest that in every one of those instances God made known each of
those biblical phrases and quotations so that the Old Testament Book
of Mormon speakers could work them into their message. It is far more
reasonable to believe that the insertions of such phrases and quotes
came from one who already had the New Testament in hand before him
while composing the Book of Mormon.... The Book of Mormon is
intentionally written by Smith in the King James style, ostensibly so
that it would sound like the Bible and be more readily accepted as a
companion to it. Moreover, for Joseph to have thrown in numerous
biblical phrases so generously while making his 'translation', one can
only conclude that he must have been much more conversant with the
Bible than Mormons are generally prepared to admit. If he knew the
Bible well enough to scatter biblical phrases freely throughout the
Book of Mormon, there is no reason why he could not have composed the
book itself. In his revelations there also appears this same type of
biblical quotation along with an employment of the King James style.
The Book of Mormon's biblical phraseology, therefore, must be credited
to Joseph Smith, and evidences a surprisingly good working knowledge
of the Bible....

"The really fatal blow to the proposal that
the New Testament material in the Old Testament portion of the Book of
Mormon is due to Joseph Smith's employment of such phrases in the
process of translating the book is that such material goes much deeper
than the mere use of words and phrases. New Testament concepts,
interpretations and theology are all worked into the text itself"
("The
Use of the Old Testament in the Book of Mormon,"
pp. 7, 10-13)

As Wesley Walters has pointed out, the problem
with regard to the Book of Mormon is that it has the ancient Nephites
making extensive quotations from works that were not even in
existence at that time. In fact, in the 1st and 2nd books of
Nephi, the writings of the New Testament are cited 600 years before
they were written!

The following might help to illustrate the problem
facing believers in the Book of Mormon: Suppose, for instance, someone
were to come forth with a book which purported to be written by Moses
entitled, The Only True Sayings of Moses, and in this book the
following words were attributed to him: "Consider the lilies how
they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that
Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." Two
problems instantly come to mind: One, the quotation is identical to the
words of Jesus in Luke 12:27. Two, Solomon was not born until Moses had
been dead for hundreds of years. Defenders of The Only True Sayings
of Moses might argue that Moses was the true author of this saying
and that Jesus merely borrowed it for his own use. With regard to the
problem of Solomon being mentioned, these apologists might use Joseph
Smith's defence that the author was really "speaking of things to
come as though they had already come" (Mosiah 16:6). It is
doubtful, however, that many people would be very impressed by either
one of these arguments. As we see it, the case set forth by Mormon
apologists in defence of the Book of Mormon seems to be just as
unreasonable.

To those who really consider the matter, it should
be obvious that the presence of many portions of the New Testament in
the Book of Mormon is more out of place than to find the following words
in a speech attributed to George Washington: "Four score and seven
years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation,
conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are
created equal." These words alone would be enough to prove the
speech a forgery. While less than a century separated George Washington
and Abraham Lincoln, in the Book of Mormon we have Lehi quoting from the
New Testament book of Revelation almost seven centuries before
it was written! (The first quotation appears on the second page
of the Book of Mormon and is dated "About 600 B.C." The book
of Revelation is believed to have been written about 90 A.D.)

It is clear that the author of the Book of Mormon
was holding a King James Version of the Bible in his hand when he
produced it. He, therefore, could not have lived in 600 B.C. When all
the evidence is examined, it is evident that he actually lived in 1830
— some 2,430 years after Lehi was supposed to have fled from
Jerusalem.

The 74 pages we devoted to the study of plagiarism
in the Book of Mormon in our new book, Covering
Up the Black Hole in the Book of Mormon, only deals with the
small plates of Nephi from the book of 1st Nephi through Omni (the
material used to replace the missing 116 pages). This material is dated
between 600 B.C. and 130 B.C. All of it, therefore, was supposed to have
been written before the time of Christ and also before the New Testament
was produced. If we had made an extensive study of the entire Book of
Mormon, it would have been at least twice as long.

The noted Mormon scholar Hugh Nibley has said that
"a forgery is defined by specialists in ancient documents as 'any
document which was not produced in the time, place, and manner claimed
by it or its publishers.' " (Since Cumorah,
p. 160) The material we have published in the first part of our
book, Covering
Up the Black Hole in the Book of Mormon, and the parallels to
the Bible which appear in the second part of that book furnish
irrefutable proof that the Book of Mormon is not the ancient text it
claims to be. Regardless of Joseph Smith's motives for producing the
book, it cannot be accepted as a genuine document because it "was
not produced in the time, place, and manner claimed by it or its
publishers."

At a church service we attended a few weeks ago, a
member of our congregation told of attending a meeting of a group of
people who were struggling to overcome addiction to drugs and alcohol.
He was very impressed by their willingness to admit that their
dependence on these items was only a symptom of greater problems within.
The man who attended this meeting then told us that even though he was
not addicted to alcohol or drugs, he was a recovering "selfaholic."
He went on to explain that all of us are in reality selfaholics.

When we think about it, we realize that this is
true and even those who are truly converted to Christ are still
recovering selfaholics who are being transformed by God's power. It is,
in fact, the dominating love of self which leads us into sin. Although
some people can hide it better than others, none of us can escape the
fact that we are by nature very selfish creatures. In Romans 3:23 we
read that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God"
(The New King James Version).

Speaking of Jesus, J. B. Phillips wrote:
"It was pride and self-righteousness and the exploitation of others
which called forth His greatest anger. Self-love in
fact He saw as the arch-enemy. It was this which must
be recognized and deliberately killed if a man were to follow His way of
constructive love." (Your God Is Too Small, page 91) Jesus
made it very clear that the worst thing that can happen to people is for
them to end up imprisoned eternally to sin and selfishness: "For
what is a man profited if he gains the whole world, and loses
his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his
soul?" (Matthew 16:26) Again, in Matthew 10:28, Jesus made the
gravity of the situation very clear: "And do not fear those who
kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able
to destroy both soul and body in hell."

Thomas A. Kempis wrote: "Know that the love
of yourself is more hurtful to you than anything else in the
world." (Of The Imitation Of Christ, p. 42) Because
the love of self is more harmful to us than anything else, the Lord
tells us to deny ourselves: "Then Jesus said to his disciples, 'If
anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself,
and take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever desires to save his
life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for My sake will find
it.' " (Matthew 16:24-25) Speaking concerning the 25th verse,
Raymond L. Cramer made this observation: "The phrase, 'save his
life,' refers to saving it for a selfish purpose, utilizing ability in
terms of self-gratification — a self-possessed, self-centered life.
Jesus was not talking here about some distant future, but physical,
down-to-earth, everyday living. He claimed that anyone who used his life
in this way would lose it. The word 'lose' means to become empty, void,
useless and destructive. That which is capable of being useful becomes a
source of insecurity, greed, and a vehicle of hostility if it is used
for selfish purposes. Fear and anxiety result when man tries to hang
onto his life. He loses what he is trying to save — life itself."
(The Psychology of Jesus and Mental Health, page 126)

Charles L. Allen commented: "The best summary
of the Ten Commandments is the one Jesus gave: 'Thou shalt love the Lord
thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy
mind... Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself' (Matthew 22:37, 39) Put
God and others first; get something into your mind greater than
yourself. In so doing you lose yourself, selfishness is blotted out;
instead of making ourselves miserable by what we do not have, we begin
to gain the blessed thrill of giving what we can give." (God's
Psychiatry, page 80)

Many people feel that "sin" only occurs
when we do wrong to others. The truth of the matter, however, is that
our selfishness continually leads us into sins of omission.
This is explained in James 4:17: "Therefore, to him who knows to do
good and does not do it, to him it is sin."
In Matthew, chapter 25, Jesus declares that those who selfishly ignore
the needs of others will be found on his "left hand" in the
day of judgment (see verses 31-46). It is very easy for us to see the
sins and selfishness of others and fail to comprehend our own wicked
condition before God. Jesus expressed it in this way: " 'And
why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider
the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me
remove the speck out of your eye'; and look, a plank is in your own eye?
Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will
see clearly to remove the speck out of your brother's eye.' "
(Matthew 7:3-5)

The Pharisees once asked why Jesus ate with
"tax collectors and sinners." Jesus responded as follows:
"Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are
sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to
repentance." (Mark 2:17) Since Jesus made it clear in other verses
that the Pharisees themselves were spiritually blind, it is obvious that
he was trying to tell them that people must realize their own sinful
condition, repent and be born again before they can enter into the
kingdom of heaven. The Pharisees simply refused to face this fact. Since
they did not believe they were spiritually sick, they had no need of the
Great Physician.

In Luke 18:9-14 we read a parable Jesus related
"to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and
despised others: 'Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee
and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with
himself, 'God, I thank You that I am not like other men — extortioners,
unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week;
I give tithes of all that I possess.' And the tax collector, standing
afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his
breast, saying, 'God be merciful to me a sinner!' I tell you, this man
went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who
exalts himself will be abased, and he who humbles himself will be
exalted.' "

It is very easy to condemn the alcoholic, drug
addict, adulterer, murderer or those who commit other flagrant sins and
yet refuse to see our own sinful and selfish condition before a holy
God. If, however, we confess to God that we are truly selfaholics who
are desperately in need of his mercy, we will be forgiven of all our
sins. Those of us who have taken this step of faith must continue to
remember that we are only recovering selfaholics who need Gods power to
overcome this addiction to having our own selfish way. Besides trusting
in the Lord's strength, we need to find a support group of other
recovering selfaholics who can encourage us to remain strong in times of
temptations. This group is usually known as a "church." If it
is serving its true purpose, a church is actually like a hospital where
the Great Physician is working through others to help treat our
selfaholic condition. We, in turn, can encourage others to resist the
temptations which selfaholics encounter.

Those of us who have come to God for healing must
be careful that we do not think that we are better than other
selfaholics who have not yet come to accept the truth about their
condition. Apostle Paul wrote: "For who makes you differ from
another? And what do you have that you did not receive? Now if you did
indeed receive it, why do you glory as if you had not received it?"
(1 Corinthians 4:7) It is only "by grace you have been saved
through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of
works, lest anyone should boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9)

According to the Bible, those who refuse to
acknowledge they are selfaholics and claim that they "have no need
of a physician" will remain in that unhappy condition forever,
whereas those who admit they have a problem and turn to God will receive
His help in treating this condition and in the next life they will find
total deliverance and eternal happiness.

We receive a great deal of encouraging mail
from our readers. The extracts from the letters which follow are just a
brief sample.

We converted to Mormonism 16 years ago.... We
subsequently married in the Temple in New Zealand... I became a
Christian in October last year and my husband followed shortly after...
two other families have left the Mormon Church which we attended after I
witnessed to them that the truth can only be found through Jesus Christ
and gave them literature to read. I believe another family who are also
close friends of ours and who are currently reading your book "Mormonism—Shadow
or Reality" will leave.... We are so grateful to you and other
Christians like you who have dedicated their lives to seeking the
truth.... We feet so full of the spirit of God and we love Jesus with
all our hearts. (Letter from Australia)

My husband and I would like to thank both of
you for your dedicated research and the enlightening facts regarding the
Mormon Church.... It saved a marriage and... answered numerous
questions.... we now have an inner peace which cannot be touched by
those who would condemn and sadly shake their heads... (Letter from
Nevada)

I was a very active LDS member for thirteen
years; the Lord used your 'Shadow or Reality' work to lead me to the
point where I began challenging what I had been taught by the church.
While I give the real glory and credit to Jesus & the Word of God,
the Lord used your work to help in my personal discovery of Jesus and in
my freedom from the error of Mormonism (Letter from California)

Thanks for your help in leaving the Mormons
and making the transition to Christianity. (Letter from Pennsylvania)

I was L.D.S. for 5 years... I had lots of
serious questions that went unanswered until a friend loaned me your
books. I am no longer L.D.S. and I am a lot happier.... Your works are
certainly a light shining in the dark... (Letter from Georgia)

Thank you so much for all the literature!...
The information provided helped me to share the truth with a Mormon
family I know. They have now begun the journey out of Mormonism—Praise
the Lord!! (Letter from California)

For more information on this subject be sure
to see our book Joseph
Smith's Plagiarism of the Bible. This book contains most of Covering
Up the Black Hole in the Book of Mormon (which it replaces) as well
as containing an expanded list of parallels between the King James
Version of the Bible and the Book of Mormon.